Analyzing Formative Assessment

I believe assessment is important and is the basis of planning for instruction, whether it is diagnostic prior to learning, formative during units or lessons, or summative to evaluate student learning. Rowan’s quote in Every Teacher’s Guide to Assessment, "After all, in the end, the problem is less the idea of testing itself, but how we design them, apply, them, and make use of their data." definitely has an impact on my assessment practices. I feel it is necessary to make sure the student acquires all aspects of the learning. Assessment should be used to bring a value for students. Within my instruction, I implement daily formative assessments which may include turn and share, quick writes, graphic organizers, online discussion responses, KahootIt, and other forms. Designing the appropriate formative assessment to match the lesson is important to assess how the learning is taught and whether the students are showing progress. In addition, I have worked on building blocks of formative assessments in checklist style leading up to the point of reviewing for a summative test. Each of these are checked off as completed and instant feedback is given. Feedback from an assessment is essential to student learning and how a teacher will ensure the content is being acquired.

The term ‘formative assessment’ is used to describe the activities and processes used by teachers and learners to gather information that informs future teaching and learning. Assessment becomes formative if the information gathered is used as feedback to adapt and modify teaching and learning (Black and Wiliam, 1998, p.2). There are a variety of different methods and techniques that can be used by teachers and learners that can contribute to enhancing learner progress. These include

During web based instructional design (WBID) and development, formative evaluation will occur from school experts including the schools technology manager, assistant principal of curriculum, and the business department chair. They will review the materials presented in the WBI (web based instruction) elements for design, content, graphics, structure, message, and technical specifications. Formative of the final WBI prototype will take place as a small group of students (one section) field test the WBI over a term. Test and assignment scores, student participation, surveys, and discussions with students will assist with determining the relative successes and failures of the program as well as areas that need improvement.

Assessments are vital to the educational process. They provide feedback about what the students know and what they may need to learn in order to obtain the content within a given curriculum. It provides teachers with a glimpse into the student’s readiness on a particular topic or subject. One of the six key principles of having an effective differentiated classroom is having a formative assessment that informs teachers on the effectiveness of their teaching. It also provides teachers with the readiness levels of their students and shows them exactly where the students’ readiness, interests, and learning profile needs really are (Tomlinson, 2014).

In these last few class sessions, we created a nontraditional formative assessment. With this, I learned that the simpler the activity instructions are, the better. This way, if there is a sub in your classroom, the they can easily read and understand the activity to give to the students. Other things to include in the teacher instructions, includes groups members, materials, and how much time should be spent on this activity. If your students are 2nd grade or older, there should be easy to read and understand instructions for the students. If your students are younger than 2nd grade, then there should be student instructions within the teacher instructions for the teacher or sub to read to the class. Either way, student instructions should

Formative assessments are non-graded, during instruction, checks for understanding. Effective formative assessments are part of a planned process of instruction that regularly monitors student comprehension and understanding. For the unit you are fully developing, please include a minimum

Throughout this process, I discovered that each student should have clear individual goals that are communicated to them through feedback on both formal and informal assignments. Providing students with choice in texts can encourage students to engage in reading texts that relate to their lives, beliefs, and values. When students need help with key skills, such as grammar or identifying evidence from the text, additional practice (i.e.: with the computer program NoRedInk) and graphic organizers can help students develop skills, practice, and apply learning to their reading and writing experiences. Frequent formative assessments help me to understand students’ skill levels with comprehension, writing, and synthesis of ideas and also allow me to track student progress. Formative assessments also allow me to provide students with feedback and communicate whether

Recently, whenever I hear current teachers discussing about assessing students, ‘Formative Assessment’ is sure to be highlighted. Nowadays this method (formative assessment) is becoming popular among schools and is being applied widely in schools including my own school. Loughland and Kilpatrick (2015) identified in the few past decades, formative assessment has turned out to be the main goal for teachers and educational systems. On the foundation of Loughland and Kilpatrick (2015) findings and from my experience in the field of teaching, I found out nowadays teachers and school stakeholders strongly feel that formative assessment is the best method to assess in order to enhance students’ learning. For these evident reasons, I am interested in finding

In this section, I will analyze the meaning attached to the feedback provided in the final summative evaluation in a question by question format.

While tutoring middle school students in math last year, I found myself strategizing to make the content more accessible to students. Not realizing it at the time, I was attempting to find something the student already had knowledge of (that related to the content) in order to build the student’s understanding from that point with more depth. After reading Lorrie Shepard’s “Linking Formative Assessment to Scaffolding”, it inspired me to reflect upon all my experiences as an at-risk middle school youth tutor. Amazed and intrigued, I realized that the theories Sheppard had written about, such as Vygotsky’s cultural theory of development, instructional scaffolding, and formative assessment were all prevalent in my experiences as a tutor.

Three thing that I learned about formative assessments is the following: Firstly, students should be owners of their own learning, descriptive feedback is better than grades and formative assessments is led by teacher but done with students. The most important takeaway from the video for me is the three parts of a formative assessment which is to help the child discover or point out yourself the problem, establish a goal and develop a plan to do to close that gap. I don’t believe there is a giveaway in the videos; I especially like the notion that not every child has to have the same goals. One questions that I have after watching this video is what are some tool and incorporate formative assessments in lesson plan daily.

Sub Standard 3.2 states that teachers need to select, develop, and use a variety of diagnostic, formative, and summative assessments. I believe many of the assessments we use with our students should provide data about a student’s critical thinking skills. I use formal assessment awhile asking my preschool students open ended how and why questions as they explore learning materials and centers in my room. I always give my young learners time to answer the questions and help guide them to better understanding of the concept. Already having experience using this type of assessments will only help me as I am teaching fourth of fifth grade Math. Using the question and answer dialog as an assessment piece with older grades will help my students learn how to answer a Math question by pulling background knowledge forward and using their thought process. This type of assessment allows me to understand where their thought process is on a Math concept and help correct their understanding if they are headed in the wrong direction. Although I will use a variety of assessments such as use summative and diagnostic I believe open ended formative question assessments will help me

Assessments and feedbacks are crucial to helping students learn effectively. Evaluating student’s abilities to comprehend text and science concepts is a major component because it helps the teacher know how their student’s literacy skills are developing (Rakes & Smith, 1992). Therefore, assigning formative literacy assessments are crucial in STEM classrooms because it helps educators get an insight on how their students would perform on high stake exams. A student who is having difficulty understanding science passages would need an adjustment in the lesson so that he or she can focus more on practicing their literacy skills.

During my experience at Challenge Academy in Fall 2015 I heavily relied on continuous formative assessment to determine my student’s attentiveness and level of comprehension. At the beginning of each session I would have the student explain what she had previously covered to check her understanding and we would also discuss what areas she struggled with or enjoyed. Throughout lessons my student would respond to verbal questions I asked, get feedback on her answers through the comprehension check and quiz questions on Gradpoint, and demonstrate her understanding to me through drawings and work. After my student took her post-test we would take time to reflect on her progress and discuss a plan for how to continue improving.

Selecting Learners- Abby has already receive permission to utilize a surgical resident or surgical resident group in order to conduct a formative elevation. Based on prior knowledge and experience, the surgical residents are a great choice to conduct the evaluation, however Abby should select few learners who represent the range of ability in the group. If time permits Abby could interview each of the candidates in order to determine the level of abilities in learning the new skills. The candidates should range in level of abilities, attitude and experiences.